Liberia: Supt. Kpan Threatened With 'Vote of No Confidence'

The Montserrado County Legislative Caucus has threatened to cast a "vote of no confidence" in the leadership of the county's Superintendent, Madam Grace Kpan and Assistant Development Superintendent, Sylvester Lama. The county's caucus cited what they called the continuous delay in the implementation of projects in the county as reason for its pending action against the two officials.

According to the caucus Chairman, Representative Edward S. Forh, the implementation of projects funded by the County Development Funds (CDF) and Social Development Funds (SDF) has been very slow. Rep. Forh termed as "unfortunate and unacceptable the slow pace" projects being supported by both the CDF and SDF are taking.

The Montserrado County lawmaker made these comments Wednesday, December 5, 2012 when he spoke to reporters in the Borough of New Kru Town on the Bushrod Island, outside Monrovia. Speaking further, he blamed the office of Supt. Kpan as being solely responsible for the manner and form in which development projects are "dragging".

He said members of the county's legislature caucus would be compelled to put up what he called"non-cooperative posture" with the county's administrative authorities if nothing is done to fast-track development projects in the county. He averred that the funds are available for the accomplishment of development projects, and as such, it is very worrisome for these projects to be delayed.

The Montserrado caucus chairman further averred that students, who met the requirement to benefit from the Montserrado County Scholarship Program, have been put out of classes because of the failure of the Superintendent's office to disburse the money to schools and universities for the students school fees. According to him, all of the necessary documents, including the names of scholarship beneficiaries from the county have been submitted to the office of the superintendent by the Project Management Team (PMT) of the county.

While describing the situation as "embarrassing and disgraceful", the lawmaker asserted that "the money is available in the coffers of the county but the fees of the students are yet to be paid". "Our concerns have been drawn to the slow pace of the Montserrado County development projects under the CDF and the SDF. Projects are ongoing very slowly and the office of the Superintendent is responsible for that. Montserrado County cannot be left behind in the development sojourn of this country," the lawmaker emphasized.

Said the Montserrado caucus chairman: "The issue ahead of us now is scholarships provided by the county to students from some districts. All of the districts did not choose scholarship. These students were selected based upon the yardstick setup by their respective districts. Their names were submitted to the Superintendent's office for processing. All of the paper works that should have been done by the individual districts have been done. It beats my imagination that up to this time the Supt office is yet to pay the fees of those students. The district has been embarrassed because students are being put out of schools. This is completely embarrassing and disgraceful because the money is there."

Rep. Forh, who is also a board member of the University of Liberia (UL), stated that the University has vowed not to accept any student under the scholarship program of Montserrado County due to the prevailing situation. Rep. Forh also blamed the situation on what he called 'administrative inefficiency' on the part of supt. Kpan and Development supt. Lama. Rep. Forh said the delay in the county's projects cast 'an integrity problem' over the administrative authorities. The Montserrado county lawmaker added that members of the caucus will hold a meeting with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf concerning the matter very soon.

Meanwhile, up to press time, Supt. Kpan and Development Supt. Lama could not be reached for comments.

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